Tape format

Used Digital8 camcorders

Digital8 was Sony's 1999 bridge from analog to digital. It records DV, the same digital video as MiniDV, onto Hi8 and Video8 cassettes, running the tape at twice the speed, so a 120-minute Hi8 tape holds 60 minutes. The draw today is your old tapes. Many Digital8 models play analog Video8 and Hi8 recordings and send them out of the i.LINK (FireWire) jack as DV, which makes them a tidy way to digitize a family archive. Not all of them do. Several later models can't play analog tapes at all, so check the model page before you buy one for that job. An analog Hi8 camera can't play a Digital8 recording.

1 model we cover.